I join “CTV News Toronto at Five” with anchor Zuraidah Alman to talk about the alien adventures of “The Outer Threat,” the moody “Her Private Hell” and the existential sci fi of “Lars Shrike Walks the Night.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 14:03)
I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Renée Rodgers to talk about the new releases in theatres including the alien adventures of “The Outer Threat,” the moody “Her Private Hell” and the existential sci fi of “Lars Shrike Walks the Night.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk about the new movies coming to theatres including the alien adventures of “The Outer Threat,” the moody “Her Private Hell” and the existential sci fi of “Lars Shrike Walks the Night” (VOD/Digital).
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to make the bed. Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the alien adventures of “The Outer Threat,” the moody “Her Private Hell” and the existential sci fi of “Lars Shrike Walks the Night.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “The Outer Threat,” a new sci fi family drama now playing in theatres, an astrophysicist and his family are forced to go on the run after he makes a groundbreaking extraterrestrial discovery.
CAST: Constance Wu, Mark O’Brien, William Fichtner. Directed by William Woods.
REVIEW: A character driven sci fi film, “The Outer Threat” is a low-key movie about the future of humanity.
Mark O’Brien plays Daniel, an obsessive astrophysicist who lives off the grid with girlfriend Michelle (Constance Wu) and her two children (Isaac Smelcer-Zhang and Callista Crowe). Michelle, also an astrophysicist, is concerned that Daniel’s work is consuming his life, leaving him with little time for her or the kids. She fears he’ll turn out like her own father (Oscar Hsu), a workaholic from whom she is now estranged.
When his research uncovers “the single greatest discovery in the history of physics,” Michelle warns him, “We can’t tell anybody. We are not ready for this.”
But when his evidence of extraterrestrial life becomes known, the information puts Daniel and his family at risk. “So that’s it,” Michelle says, “we’re not in charge anymore.”
As blackouts become widespread, Daniel and family flee, hunted by an anonymous pursuer. As the family and the world faces the unknown, they search for safety, truth and the identity of their stalker.
A low-key sci fi movie set against the backdrop of an intense family drama, “The Outer Threat” succeeds because of uniformly strong performances from the cast.
As the obsessive, flawed Daniel, O’Brien is relatable as a man who has fallen down a rabbit hole and now must deal with the consequences. The stakes are high, but O’Brien never overplaying the situation.
Wu brings warmth and intelligence, grounding the story with her concern for her family over her husband’s scientific activities.
A welcome extended cameo from William Fichtner amps up the film’s paranoia element, while Oscar Hsu, as Michaelle’s father, fits like a puzzle puce into the film’s story of family.
“The Outer Threat” does a lot with a little. Without large set pieces to fall back on, director William Woods maintains a simple, understated approach that values ideas and family relations over spectacle. It fizzles a bit at the end but until then its study of first contact is unique and compelling.
The Quebec-set “French Girl,” now playing in theatres, may be the only rom com to feature Mixed Martial Arts as a plot point. Other than that, it’s a standard romantic comedy, heavy on the romance but light on real comedy.
Zach Braff plays Gordon Kinski, a Brooklyn, New York born-and-raised high school English teacher, who has never wandered outside the neighborhood he was born into. He lives close to his eccentric writer father (William Fichtner) and teaches at the school he attended as a teen.
He’s forced out of his comfort zone when his live-in chef girlfriend Sophie (Evelyne Brochu) gets the chance to work in a fancy hotel kitchen, run by world-famous chef Ruby Collins (Vanessa Hudgens), in her Quebec City hometown.
Bags packed, he goes along for the ride. Trouble is, Gordon, a bundle of anxiety and insecurity, tries a little too hard to impress Sophie’s French-Canadian family. On top of that, unbeknownst to Gordon, Sophie and Ruby were once a couple, and the flame of attraction may still be burning.
The CanCon rom com “French Girl” is a fish-out-of-water story that leans heavily into the genre’s conventions. You know how it will end—if you don’t, give up your RomComCard—so it is important to make the journey to the end credits as entertaining as possible.
Braff does yeoman’s work bringing as much charm as possible to Gordon. His photo should be next to the word “neurosis” in the dictionary, and after a time, his ability to put his foot in his mouth becomes almost as tiering for the audience as it does for Sophie’s family.
Brochu, in a fairly thankless role, has good chemistry with Braff, but really shines when she is interacting with the members of her family.
Hudgens plays Ruby as a ruthless chef with a passion for perfection. It’s a stereotype straight out of “Hell’s Kitchen,” which might have had more impact if we actually saw her prepare some food, and not just dip her finger into a sauce with an unkind word on her lips and a sneer on her face.
Romantic comedies can be comforting in their cliches. Like a great meatloaf or mac ‘n’ cheese, they are unpretentious, don’t demand much and in return provide a warm happy feeing. “French Girl” has the comforting traits of the genre, but in the end is mostly empty calories.
By Richard Crouse – Metro Canada
“It’s nice to know there are still some heroes out there making sacrifices so I can go play dress up,” says Geoff Stults, “and I loved playing dress up on this one.”
Stults co-stars with Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon and Michael Peña in 12 Strong, the tale of one of the most successful missions in military history. In just three weeks, 12 Green Berets, with the help of Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum of Afghanistan’s Northern Alliance, battled the Taliban to take back the occupied city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
Based on Doug Stanton’s non-fiction book Horse Soldiers, 12 Strong is both conventional and unconventional in its approach. Structured like a traditional war film, it’s also the first time in memory we’ve seen modern warfare on horseback on the big screen. Once in Afghanistan, the Green Berets discover the best method of transport through the rocky and treacherous terrain is on the back of a horse.
“I grew up part-time in Colorado so I grew up with trail rides,” Stults says. “Certainly hadn’t been on a horse in years. The first day of getting on this horse was interesting.
“The wranglers would throw marks on the ground and we would have to ride up and stop and hit our marks-ish. The good news is the horses were trained better than the actors were trained. They knew what they were doing but they’re temperamental animals. Sometimes they didn’t want to stand there on a weird angle, on a weird hill, for 10 takes in a row while the actors got their lines right. Harder than riding was getting the horses to stay still. Between takes, just to keep the horses chill, we’d be moving them around.”
As the first American soldiers to take on the Taliban on their home turf after 9-11, the soldiers portrayed in 12 Strong endured impossible odds, outgunned and outnumbered 5,000 to 1.
“These guys were already in service and said, ‘What are we going to do to make sure nothing like this ever happens again?’ It’s a story about 12 guys who were willing to make what could have been the ultimate sacrifice.”
Stults is quick to mention that the movie is not only an American story.
“9-11 happened on American soil,” he says, “this is an American skewing story but it wasn’t an isolated American experience. It changed all our lives.
“It is also about the people of Afghanistan and their heroics. This couldn’t have happened without them and Gen. Dostum’s partnership. These people have been occupied, oppressed, dealing with the Taliban coming in and out of their villages.”
“12 Strong” tells the tale of one of the most successful missions in military history. In just three weeks twelve Green Berets with the help of General Abdul Rashid Dostum of the Northern Alliance battled the Taliban and inhospitable terrain to take back the occupied city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
Chris Hemsworth leaves the mighty hammer of Thor on Planet Asgard to play the earth bound hero and Green Beret Captain Mitch Nelson. On leave when 9/11 happened he immediately reported for duty, asking that his team be reinstated to fight the Taliban. “You break his team up,” says Chief Warrant Officer Cal Spencer (Michael Shannon), “and you cut the head off your most venomous snake.” Named Task Force Dagger, they are shipped off to Afghanistan with orders to team with Northern Alliance General Abdul Rashid Dostum (Navid Negahban). Outgunned and outnumbered 5000 to 1 this uneasy partnership must endure impossible odds to defeat the Taliban on their own turf.
Based on Doug Stanton’s non-fiction book “Horse Soldiers,” “12 Strong” is both conventional and unconventional in its approach. Structured like a traditional war film, it’s also the first time (to my memory) we’ve seen modern warfare on horseback on the big screen. Once in Afghanistan the Green Berets discover the best method of transport through the rocky and treacherous terrain is on the back of a horse. In a clash of old and new, the cavalry battle tanks and rocket launchers and it makes for some striking images.
Like so many war flicks before it, in it’s opening minutes we see Nelson, Spencer and Sergeant First Class Sam Diller (Michael Peña) with their loving families before they are sent to battle. It’s standard shorthand to create empathy for the characters. They are family men driven by a sense of duty to their country. All well and good. We’ve seen it before but actors like Hemsworth, Shannon and Peña rise above the cliché to bring some heartfelt moments to those scenes. But what about the other nine guys in the troupe? We never learn much about them and, as a result, they are just bodies on a screen instead of fully rounded characters.
Having said that, for every war cliché—“Let’s get this war started,” howls Nelson at one point—there is another scene that offers insight into the difficult and confounding task the men have ahead of them. There is much talk of the struggle of fighting an ideological war against people who believe their great reward is in the afterlife. “There’s no playbook for this mission,” says Nelson. “We have to make it up as we go along.” As the first American soldiers to take on the Taliban after 9/11 they face a steep learning curve, finally coming to understand that this will be a war of small victories with no clear endpoint. They may win the battle but still need to fight the war. The confounding nature of this situation will be familiar to anyone who has followed the news coverage of the war in real time but is concisely summed up by Dostum. “There are no right choices here. This is Afghanistan. The grave of many empires.”
In today’s world it’s not enough to simply be a hero. Now you must be a superhero. Unlike the old days when square-jawed movie stars rescued damsels in distress or battled cold-hearted landlords, today’s champions won’t get out of bed for anything less than the threat of complete world annihilation. Liberating a cat from a tree or performing the Heimlich Maneuver is considered HeroLite™, the work of lesser lifesavers.
Today it’s all about averting the apocalypse. In Captain America: Civil War the idea of how to police and ultimately save the world is at the heart of the action and X-Men: Apocalypse’s bad guy has grandiose plans to “cleanse mankind and create a new world order.”
This weekend the heroes of Independence Day: Resurgence join Mystique, Quicksilver, Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, Donatello, Captain America and legendary do-gooders Batman and Superman in some good, old fashioned world saving.
The twenty-years-in-the-making sequel to Will Smith’s mega-hit sees aliens from outside the Solar System attack our planet. It’s life and death on a planetary scale, a premise that has become increasingly popular in recent years.
It’s not a surprise the stories are getting larger and louder. Audiences want a big bang for their buck and Hollywood is pleased to oblige with high stakes situations that provide frenetic action and happy endings (unless, of course you’re rooting for the bad guy). These days Hollywood also looks to overseas markets for mega-revenue and presenting globe-spanning stories helps to attract crowds in other countries.
Business aside, why have audiences embraced world-on-the-brink movies?
Films, says Dr. Norman Holland, Marston-Milbauer Eminent Scholar Emeritus at the University of Florida, work on different parts of your brain.
“The parts that turn off are the parts that plan action because you’re not going to act on what you see on the screen in front of you,” he says. “You turn off the systems that plan, that look ahead that evaluate futures. That explains the phenomenon of the willing suspension of disbelief. You accept the most improbable things, like Stars Wars or Spider-Man or whatever. At the same time the lower centres of your brain are generating emotions like mad in response to what you’re seeing. This is the peculiar phenomenon that you can feel and care about these people on the screen while at the same time knowing they are nothing but a fiction.”
In other words, it’s what legendary purveyor of thrills Alfred Hitchcock said. “People like to be scared when they feel safe.”
We live in unsettling and troubled times and going to the movies can provide an escape. In these heroic tales good almost always wins out, a comforting antidote to the nightly news where stories often don’t have happy endings. It makes us feel good, but, as Dr. Holland notes, it’s also restful.
“As you know they are redesigning movie theatres with recliner chairs so you can sleep through the movie,” he says. “Yes, it is relaxing. This is the part of your brain that worries, that plans for the future, that is concerned about the state of your body. All that shuts down. It’s restful, no question.”
Going to the movies is restful? Good for us? Seems like in our busy, stressful world it’s the films that are the heroes, not the characters.
